Laboratory – Fabrication

Fabrication

All of the following builds and fabrications are in various states of completion. I’m attempting to document them well enough for just about anyone with a basic electronics understanding to follow. If you’re interested in a specific project, or interested in collaborating with me on a build, leave a message in the comments.

Gakken SX-150 MKII MIDI-IN Mod
It can be annoying sometimes having such an interesting synthesizer like the Gakken SX-150 MKII in my rack when it’s not MIDI capable. My solution is to break out the soldering iron and graft on a MIDI IN jack using the MIDI-IF circuit board kit put together by Beatnic.jp. Build Notes Page »

Arduino Granular Lo-fi Synthesizer Lab
The Arduino development platform is an ideal playground for electronic music DIY projects and general electronics fun. The “Auduino” is an Arduino based lo-fi granular synthesis project by Peter Knight at Tinkerit . The project is ideal for experimentation and could easily be the foundation for building your own custom synthesizer. Build Notes Page »

Arduino 4-Voice Wavetable Synthesizer Lab
With just a few parts and a little bit of code written by DZL from GeekPhysical, it’s possible to turn the Arduino into a simple wavetable synthesizer. It’s worth the effort to put this together if only to capture a few interesting samples. If the sounds prove to be interesting enough, I’ll add some physical controls and hook up a MIDI-IN extension and see what happens. Build Notes Page »

MIDI-IN and MIDI-THRU Breakout Board For Arduino
The Arduino doesn’t have serial MIDI 5-pin connections, so I’m making a prototype breakout board to use with my various MIDI-based experiments. The circuits are modern, exceed the original MIDI specification design and are safe to use with other MIDI based projects. Build Notes Page »

MIDI OUT and MIDI THRU MOD For Volca Keys
The Korg Volca Series of synthesizers lack a MIDI-OUT connector, even though contact points exist on their circuit boards for making this type of connection. This isn’t really a modification so much as a “hook-up.” I’ll be adding a prototype buffered MIDI-THRU circuit using a Hex Inverting Schmitt Trigger to see what happens.

Arduino Xylophone MIDI Controller Build
I’m a Percussionist. It makes sense to have some sort of percussion MIDI input device available for my rack. Instead of buying something ready-made, I’ll be building a xylophone MIDI trigger with the Arduino prototyping platform.